Skill

Skills improve existing abilities and/or grant passive bonuses and are comparable to talents and talent trees of other MMORPGs. Skills have a direct influence on the overall strengths of your character and, along with your traits and Captain Specializations, are a key to adapting your character to your play style.

Skills are separated into space & ground skills. Space skills are subgrouped into "Tactical Systems", "Engineering Systems", and "Science and Operation Systems". Ground skills consist of only one career path-specific group ("Tactical/Engineering/Science Officer"). Additionally, there are five columns of skills, from Lieutenant on the left, to Admiral on the right. In order to have access to the next column of skills, you must hold the required Rank.

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  The skill menu of a tactical Starfleet officer...

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  ... an engineering officer of the Klingon Defense Force...

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  ... and a science officer of the Romulan Republic.

Each skill has 9 upgrade levels whose skill point costs depend on the rank (i.e., column) of the skill:

• 1,000 for Lieutenant
• 1,500 for Lt. Commander / Centurion
• 2,000 for Commander / Subcommander
• 2,500 for Captain / Commander
• 3,000 for Admiral / General skills.

At level 50, you have a total of 366,000 to assign to the skills of your choice, however, you can only assign a maximum of 300,000 to space skills, i.e., at least 66,000 must go into ground skills. The bonus granted per level diminishes (shown below), i.e., the first three upgrade levels grant +18 bonus each, the second three +10 each, and the last three only +5 each (3x18 + 3x10 + 3x5 = 99 bonus):

The absolute improvement a bonus increment grants depends on each individual skill. Starship Energy- and Projectile Weapon Specialization, for instance, both grant ~0.02% critical hit chance and ~0.25% critical severity per bonus increment for their respective weapon type. Starship Weapon- and Shield Performance on the other hand, both grant 0.1% power increase per bonus increment for their respective systems. The exact absolute bonuses for most other skills are not well known and have never been disclosed by the developers.

Space

The space portion of the skill tree is the same for each career path.

Lieutenant	Lt. Commander	Commander	Captain	Admiral / General
Tactical Systems
Starship Attack Patterns	Starship Energy Weapons	Starship Maneuvers	Starship Stealth	Starship Energy Weapon Specialization
Starship Weapons Training	Starship Projectile Weapons	Starship Targeting Systems	Starship Threat Control	Starship Projectile Weapon Specialization
Engineering Systems
Driver Coil	Structural Integrity	Starship Electro-Plasma Systems	Starship Engine Performance	Starship Armor Reinforcements
Starship Batteries	Starship Subsystem Repair	Starship Impulse Thrusters	Starship Hull Plating	Starship Auxiliary Performance
Starship Hull Repair	Starship Warp Core Efficiency	Starship Warp Core Potential	Starship Shield Performance	Starship Weapon Performance
Science and Operation Systems
Starship Flow Capacitors	Starship Power Insulators	Starship Graviton Generators	Starship Inertial Dampeners	Starship Countermeasure Systems
Starship Shield Emitters	Starship Shield Systems	Starship Particle Generators	Starship Sensors	Starship Subspace Decompiler

Ground

The ground portion of the skill tree is specific for each career path.

Tactical Officer

Tactical Officer is part of the Tactical skill tables and is only available to players with the Tactical career path.

Lieutenant	Lt. Commander	Commander	Captain	Admiral / General
Tactical Officer
Grenades	Combat Specialist	Special Forces	Squad Command	Advanced Tactics
Weapon Proficiency	PS Generator	Threat Control	Willpower	Combat Armor

Engineering Officer

Engineering Officer is part of the Engineering skill tables and is only available to players with the Engineering career path.

Lieutenant	Lt. Commander	Commander	Captain	Admiral / General
Engineering Officer
Demolitions	PS Generator	Generators	Turrets and Drones	Combat Armor
Weapon Proficiency	Repairs	Threat Control	Willpower	Modification Specialist

Science Officer

Science Officer is part of the Science skill tables and is only available to players with the Science career path.

Lieutenant	Lt. Commander	Commander	Captain	Admiral / General
Science Officer
Medic	Physiology	Scientist	Probability Logistics	Combat Armor
Weapon Proficiency	PS Generator	Threat Control	Willpower	Particle Physics

See also

• Bridge officer abilities: The trainable abilities possessed by Bridge Officers
• List of skills trainable by captain: A list of the skills that a Captain can teach his or her Bridge Officers
• Abilities and Skills Database by Adimal
• STO Character Planner @ STO-Academy.com